1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to managing communications in a communication network. More particularly, the present invention relates to managing communications in a Multi-User Reusing One time Slot (MUROS) based communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication devices such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptops, and computers are frequently used for communication. The communication devices can communicate with each other through a communication network. The communication network can be a wired communication network or a wireless communication network. An example of a wired communication network is the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
In the wireless communication network, a communication range is divided into a plurality of regions called radio cells. Each radio cell has a base station. A base station includes a radio transmitter and receiver used for transmitting and receiving voice and data signals to and from communication devices in a cell. A communication device can communicate with other communication devices in the wireless communication network through one or more base stations. Examples of wireless communication networks include but are not limited to a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network, and a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network.
Different communication networks use different communication technique for enabling communication between communication devices. The GSM communication network uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology for providing communication to a plurality of communication devices. TDMA is a channel access method for radio networks. The method allows one or more users of the communication devices to use predefined timeslots on specified frequencies in a cell.
The TDMA technology allows a predefined number of users to communicate with other users of communication devices at the same time. Each of the predefined number of users is assigned a time slot for transmitting data in rapid succession, one after the other. However, as the number of slots that can be allocated to users in a cell is fixed, there are various methods that are used to increase the number of users.
One method is applying the Multiple Users Reusing One Single time slot (MUROS) concept. The MUROS concept enhances the cell capacity by pairing two or more users to a single timeslot. However, the quality of communication decreases and sudden degradation in the link quality may be experienced, when the communication channel is established and the pairing of two users is performed using MUROS concept. This is due to the Co-Channel Interference and the power imbalance ratio between the two or more users in the single time slot. In order to mitigate this problem, care should be taken that the Co-Channel Interference should be within the acceptable threshold value. A proper criterion for user pairing or allocation mechanism is required to assign multiple users to a single timeslot.
Accordingly, there exists a need to manage communication links when the wireless communication network uses the MUROS concept for establishing communication channel.